The Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs has granted funding of €39.5 million (about Sh4.7bn) to implement a five-year Climate Smart Agriculture programme in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda to a consortium led by SNV Netherlands Development Organisation, in partnership with Wageningen University and Research, CGIAR’s Climate Change Agriculture and Food Security Programme, Agriterra, and Rabo Partnerships.

This initiative will significantly contribute to The Netherlands’ international commitments on climate change.

Climate change being a threat to crop yields in Africa, and harvest losses may add up to 20 fold the investment costs of adapting agricultural practices now the programme aims to increase food production and food security by enhancing climate resilience throughout the supply chain.

By 2022 the programme will result in adaptive productive capacity and increased incomes for 300,000 medium sized and smallholder producers. On top of that there will be improved business performance of 50 small medium enterprises and 30 cooperatives to mitigate the risks of climate change on their supply chains.

“This grant will help us scale up our support to farmer communities to feed their families and increase their income. This will require adapting the way they farm to more frequent drought and other climate-related changes” said Meike van Ginneken, CEO of SNV.

The programme uses a three-pronged approach: implementing complementary interventions to increase adoption of climate-smart practices and technologies among farmers and SMEs, stimulating their growth throughout the value chain by enhancing private sector investments in climate adaptation and advocating with partners and the government of the three targeted countries to encourage a favorable enabling environment for large-scale market adoption.

“We collaborate with private and financial sector partners such as Rabobank – who will pave the way for financially viable Climate Smart Agriculture solutions and investment to agribusinesses,” said Ginneken.

Dutch expertise in sustainable food production systems, particularly in potatoes, oilseeds, and pulses will be mobilized.